 |
|||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|||
         |
|||
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||
Beijing Tattoo Convention 2008 - East Meets West
When we landed the Pilot announced "Please do not smoke on the plane, wait until you are in the terminal" that is China, tea and cigarettes. But this post Olympics Beijing is very different than the China I saw with Lyle Tuttle just a year before.
Dan Allaston of Ottawa, that produced those legendary Montreal conventions in the early nineties, had a plane break down and still managed to join us before Jack Rudy, big surprise there. Mike Martin, Peel , and Glen "Car-jack"Paradis, rounded out the entourage, our indelible rat-pack hit the Beijing show, well, pardon the pun, like white on rice.
China's tattoo world advances in what we think of as the blink of an eye. A decade ago there were no tattoo shops in Beijing, now they are in the hundreds. Sure tattooing as a cultural revolution here is still young, but has gone from it's infancy to it's adolescence in a fuckin year.
The show was a success from the opening, we would finish our day and then go back to the hotel for a dinner, which is a minimum three hour long affair. Then it spilled into the hotel lobby and new friendships were made, artwork, emails, and gifts were exchanged. Great artists from all over Asia would sip tea, beer and Beijing wine with us until the early hours of the morning sketching and drawing exchanging art without even knowing others language, indeed pretty well everyone spoke tattoo. Hailin Fu, of Liehoe Tattoo in Jinan city, had been to our Toronto convention as had Andy Shou of Taiwan and they were excited to see Paul Booth and Bob Tyrrell again and show them hospitality here. The Dutchman quickly became good friends with Bill Du, of Shanghai both of them painting an incredible dragon canvas at Art Fusion on the second day.
Our last night together in Beijing was spent in Hou Hai, the hip downtown club area around a man made lake which was dug out to build a small mountain across form the forbidden city in order for the emperor to have a nice place to look down on his kingdom. Jack Rudy regaled us with his views of the culture with the departing Confucian wisdom "Man who goes to bed with itchy ass, wake up with stinky finger" Wiser words were never spoken Jack. Thanks much to the Dutchman and his Delightful wife, Ligaya, Jeremy Johnston, Melanie Lum, who opened my eyes to the hot art scene in China, Paul Booth, Bob Tyrrell, Kurt Wiscombe, Jack Rudy, Mike Martin, Dan Allaston, Glen Paradis, John Chen, Peel and all the great artists in China for making an epic memory of our tattooed journey. Can't wait to see many of you again in the new year at the Cape Town, South Africa Southern Ink Xposure, Jan 23rd to 25th at the Cape Town International Convention Center, what will surely be another show of a lifetime. For more info that show look to http://tattoos.com/six |
I landed with 
We arrived at 9am Friday, yes shows there start at 9AM, walking into a sea of tattoo fans, were rushed to our booths, surrounded by security to hold back the mass of people wanting just to meet western artists or get work from them. It was a tattoo Beatlemania. We were just as shocked by them as they were by us. We knew right away it was on, and it was gonna be on all weekend. 
I am not referring to skill, just development of the trade. The Skill, the art, is mind blowing. The trade is in full bloom. They are not opting for small work here. Bodysuits, sleeves and custom work abounds. Chinese legend and art are dominant, although you can see the adaption of western influence, darkness from 
The convention flow never let up and the work being done was of a caliber that would hold it's own with any other major international convention I've been too. By the time it wrapped up on Sunday many of the artists were stoked on the ink they had seen over the weekend and we all went for a closing supper that was epic, "Gambei" (Chinese for cheers) was shouted every few seconds and we all drank, eat and clowned with each other again until the wee hours of the morning. Although there was only a dozen artists from the west, it helped give an international flavour and hospitality to this years show and I am sure as word gets out to just how eager the new generation here is of Kisen and his staff was stellar arranging private tours for all of us to the old Great Wall in the country, or day trip out to the forbidden city and Tianemen square. We returned to stay in old Beijing where the endless maze of Hutongs (small alleyways) are dotted with restaurants stores and pubs, bars and tea rooms where we could shop, eat and drink with the locals who were always polite, pleasant and eager to to chat. Thanks to an American friend Jeremy Johnston who is running a Hip Hop label in China we had a great translator on hand. 